As an owner-operator operating on your own authority, the time will come when you have to turn away work because you only have so much capacity with one truck and trailer. It is at this junction in one’s business that the thought of expanding may start to creep up from somewhere in the depths of the mind between “reason” and “insanity”! I say this only because I know for a fact that there are those out there that, even though they love what they do, would think it a little “nutso” to take on more responsibility than it already takes to operate as a one-truck independent.
The past few months for me have been filled with lots of thought related to just this subject. Having been able to keep a more than steady workflow throughout the winter, I found myself turning down quite a bit of work in my given area of hauling expertise. I am not the kind of driver that likes to say no to a customer either, since doing so equates to a direct lost opportunity cost in my head. After much deliberation and internal debate, I decided to take that leap and solicit a successful owner-operator I have known for years to see if he would be interested in leasing on as a contractor to pull one of my trailers. After meeting and finally settling on terms for his contract, I am now proud to be recovering some of those previously lost opportunity costs by operating a two-truck fleet.
By no means did I reach this decision lightly, as much planning has gone on behind the scenes in considering the expansion of my business. I am finding out now that it truly does mean doubling my own workload in and out of the office, as I had suspected it would in my planning. Not only does it mean two trucks to plan out when dispatching, but it also means double the invoices that need to go out and in my case, double the trailer inspections and maintenance as well. There is not a shred of me that looks back on this decision with regret, but as always, I want to let anyone out there who is considering this move for their business know that it is a ton of work to take on and in no way should it be done overnight!
In the overall plan I have for my business, which just so happens to actually be written out in a lengthy ever-evolving form, the choice to expand was always a matter of “when” and never a matter of “if”. I considered the breaking point for me to be when I would consistently turn down enough weekly work volume to keep a second truck busy over 70% of the time, without having to be looking for the extra work. It would seem as though my reputation for customer service and on-time transit of goods helped propel me to the point where I needed to launch my fleet addition, but I was glad that the planning was already done at that point! If your goal is to grow, I recommend talking to those that have been there and listen to everything they have to say. It is in no way an easy task to accomplish and carry out, but in the end can be a rewarding and profitable decision.